One.

One item, one choice, one action.

You don’t have to organize the entire closet today, or deal with everything in the top desk drawer, or file all the papers piled on the desk.

Start with one.

Find something in your closet you know you’ll never wear again and put it in the donation bag.

Toss out the broken pencil in the desk drawer.

File your W2 with your 2012 tax papers.

That’s all there is to get organized.

You just have to decide about one thing; at a time.

Do you need it?  Use it?  Love it?

Does that one thing belong in that space?

Does it have a home somewhere else in the house?

Is it trash?  Recyclable?  A donation?

One decision is manageable.

Each single decision moves you toward 

having what you need, where you need it, when you want it.

You’ve already made the decision that you want to have a simpler, less cluttered, and  more organized life.

Now make one decision about one item in your life to make that new life possible.

Go ahead.  

Make a choice.

Karen  

Be daring......

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,

who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again,

because there is no effort without error or shortcoming,

but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement,

and who, at the worst,

if he fails ,at least he fails while daring greatly...“

                                                                 Theodore Roosevelt

Where in your life are you saying ‘yes!’ and daring greatly?

Karen  

A bow of acknowledgement and thanks to Brene Brown and her new book.

Lose ten pounds (or more) in one hour.

January is the perfect time to start.

I can promise  immediate results!

Open your file drawer.

Start at the front.

Purge.

Set aside all the papers you’ll need for your 2012 taxes.

Toss the receipts you were keeping ‘just in case’.

Weed out the out dated policies and accounts.

Get rid of evidence of paid off monthly bills.

Ditch the manuals for products you no longer own.

Shred or recycle all the paperwork that is no longer relevant or necessary.

(If the shred pile seems daunting for your home machine, Staple and Office Max will shred it for you for less than $1 a pound.  How much is your time worth?)

Rethink your filing needs.

Consider on line bill paying to reduce the paper that comes into your home.

Scan important documents and eliminate whole categories of filing.

Decide if a file drawer is the best place to be storing paperwork for you.

Should some things be in a safe or safe deposit box?

Could some items go in a Sentimental or Memorabilia Box and be stored in less prime real estate?

Could you find the information on line?  Users manuals, recipes, travel information, benefit explanations, etc.

Make filing as fast and easy as possible by filing in broad categories.

Chances are you’re never going to go back for the paper anyway. 

But if you do, you can spend your time then looking through the papers.

Oragnize your files in a way that makes sense to you.

Some people prefer alphabetical.

Others prefer frequency of needed access.

Perhaps you’re a color coded kind of person.

No matter your preference, simple is best.

Every step you add makes it that much less likely you’ll follow through with the process.

By eliminating the unnecessary, out dated, redundant, and really should or could live else where, you will be able to reduce your four drawer file cabinet to a two, your two to a one, and maybe your one to a small case.

Talk about weight loss you can see immediately!

If you have questions or concerns about which papers you need to keep and for how long, I have list I can email you. 

Or talk to your accountant to find out what your specific needs might be.

There will always be paper coming into your life and house.

By developing some simple strategies for dealing with it, you can keep it managed.

Here’s to having less weigh on us in 2013.

Karen 

Theme Word for 2013

Borrowing an idea from Gretchen Rubin’s latest book, ‘Happier at Home’ I, and some friends, decided to choose a Theme Word for the New Year.

I invite you to do the same.

Without making it too big of a deal, or worrying that you’re choosing the exactly perfect word, or putting every desire/resolution/change into this,  just let one word float to the top of your imagination and go with that.

Perhaps it’s a feeling you’d like to experience more in the coming year, or an activity, or a concept that inspires you, or perhaps a word to help remind you of what’s possible or important.

Write the word down.  Or don’t. 

Maybe you want to hang it where it will remind you on a daily basis.  Maybe you want to slip it into a drawer so you can come across it unexpectedly, maybe you’ll want to make it the open screen on your phone.

This isn’t a declaration or a mission statement or another way to beat your self up.

This is one word to carry in your thoughts and heart, to gently remind  you to pause and consider another way of being.

Here’s to a New Year that supports and delights us, challenges and nurtures us, and has Less Stuff and More Possibilities!

Karen 

My theme word is BIG!